Have you made THESE mistakes? This is part of a talk I gave to several homeschooling conferences over the past three months (I think there were seven of them, from Minnesota to Pennsylvania to Florida to Washington state!), and I thought you might find something of value here. If you want the full article, please refer to the link at the bottom.

Happy Summer!
Aurora

The Seven Biggest Mistakes Made
in Teaching Homeschool Science
And What to Do About Them

by Aurora Lipper, owner of Supercharged Science

Did you have a teacher that really had an impact on you? Remember the excitement? Or the thrill you felt when you taught something to someone else and they really got it?

First, let me thank you for your commitment to education â€“ a value that is high enough for you that you are either homeschooling your child or considering it.

In this article, I am going to share with you some of the common mistakes that homeschool educators often make. If youâ€™ve fallen prey to one or more of these, it simply means that no one told you about them yet. Once you know, you can then focus on solutions. Or, perhaps youâ€™ll find that you are already on track, and this may reaffirm that you are headed in the right direction. Are you ready? Letâ€™s begin.

Mistake #1. Failure to make an impact.
In todayâ€™s world, weâ€™re so inundated with information that in order to really teach something new, you need to get someoneâ€™s attention. Think about food commercials. Advertisers first focus on getting you hooked, catching your eye â€“ before they ever deliver their real message. And thatâ€™s what you need to do when teaching science.

Youâ€™ve got stack the deck with things that inspire natural curiosity. Hand them a bucket and ask them to tilt it completely sideways without a single drop of water coming out. (When you hand them the bucket, donâ€™t touch the handle. Just hand it over from the bottom. Let them make that jump themselves.)

How do you know when youâ€™re doing this right? You know youâ€™ve made an impact when your kidâ€™s entire body says, â€œWOW!â€